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AT&T is promising that it will launch a mobile service in 2018, but hasn't yet unveiled a smartphone, instead launching with a "mobile puck" -- a router that distributes the 5G signal to devices via WiFi -- on millimeter wave high-band spectrum. The initial promise of the service will be "enhanced broadband" with 1Gbit/s download speeds being clocked in AT&T fixed wireless 5G tests. (See AT&T 5G Tests Go Gaga for Gigabit.)

"Our 5G deployment strategy will include using millimeter wave spectrum to deploy 5G in pockets of dense areas -- where demand on our network is high and extra capacity and coverage is needed most," AT&T said in a statement. "In other parts of urban areas and in suburban and rural areas, we plan to deploy 5G on our mid and low-band spectrum holdings."

AT&T also noted that, in in Waco, Texas, over the weekend, it "made the world's first wireless 5G data transfer over millimeter wave using standards-based, production equipment with a mobile form factor device. Not a lab. Not preproduction hardware. Not emulators. And fully compliant with global standards."

The operator said that feat was achieved using a Qualcomm "smartphone form factor test device" built around a Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem and RF subsystem and "Ericsson 5G-NR capable radios connected to our virtual 3X standards compliant core." For more details, see this AT&T announcement.